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Balloon Eustachian tuboplasty – is it time to start doing it in children?

Given the potential applications for balloon Eustachian tuboplasty (BET) in children, its uptake in most centres has been slow. The reasons for this are multifactorial. There are technical issues – the feasibility of obtaining the correct size balloon and manoeuvring...

Pharmacological treatment of glue ear in children

Otitis media with effusion (OME), also known as glue ear, is a common cause of hearing loss in children. Most cases resolve spontaneously within three months. Early and proper management of OME can help avoid hearing and speech impairment that...

All videoswallows are not performed equally…

Videofluoroscopy is one of the main instrumental tools used to assess swallowing biomechanics and physiology. In the UK, it is mainly within the remit of speech and language therapists (SLT) to perform videoswallows but there is considerable variability in both...

Advances in neural stimulation of the auditory pathway

This article reviews the use of neuroprosthetic devices such as cochlear and auditory brainstem implants (ABI) to stimulate the auditory pathway, discussing the successes, limitations and advances in this area. Currently, neuroprosthetic devices deliver electrical impulses to the cochlear nerve...

The polyp shrinker

Inflammatory markers, including T2 cells beta common (βc) cytokines IL-3, IL5 and granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF), are known to play an important role in chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps (CRSwNP). CSL311, a monoclonal antibody (mAb), was developed to target human...

Sarcopenia and dysphagia in older community-dwelling adults

The prevalence of dysphagia in community-dwelling older adults is reported to be around 15%. Outside of common neurological causes such as stroke, Parkinson’s disease and dementia, recent studies have suggested that sarcopenia may be an independent risk factor for the...

Sphenopalatine ganglion block in endoscopic sinus surgery reduces intra and post-operative morbidity

The authors present results of a meta-analysis to investigate the role of sphenopalatine ganglion block (SPGB) in reducing postoperative pain in endoscopic sinus surgery (ESS). An electronic database search (Pubmed, SCOPUS, Google Scholar, Embase, and the Cochrane Register of Controlled...

Strength of evidence in otolaryngology research – do women make the difference?

Clinicians around the world understand the need for research and publication of gathered evidence to inform practice and improve patient outcomes. The introduction of the Oxford Centre for Evidence-based Medicine (CEBM) Levels of Evidence guideline in 2011, has been invaluable...

Choosing our tools: assessing language in dementia

Language led dementia, also known as primary progressive aphasia (PPA), is an emerging area of practice in speech and language therapy. Given that the diagnosis centres around the key diagnostic feature of language, whereby language impairment is the most prominent...

Grading dysphagia as a toxicity in treating head and neck cancer

Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events (CTCAE) is a system used by clinicians to grade the toxicity of oncology treatments in a standardised manner. Dysphagia is perhaps the most common long-term toxicity of head and neck cancer treatment. Currently, a...